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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

The Amaranth

Vachel Lindsay

Ah, in the night, all music haunts me here. . . .
Is it for naught high Heaven cracks and yawns
And the tremendous Amaranth descends
Sweet with the glory of ten thousand dawns?

Does it not mean my God would have me say:—
“Whether you will or no, O city young,
Heaven will bloom like one great flower for you,
Flash and loom greatly all your marts among?”

Friends, I will not cease hoping though you weep.
Such things I see, and some of them shall come
Though now our streets are harsh and ashen-gray,
Though our strong youths are strident now, or dumb.
Friends, that sweet town, that wonder-town, shall rise.
Naught can delay it.  Though it may not be
Just as I dream, it comes at last I know
With streets like channels of an incense-sea.
Online text © 1998-2009 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Congo & Other Poems | 1914
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